Engaging New Recruits

Building and Maintaining Motivation

Have you ever hired a promising new team member, only to see her enthusiasm and engagement fall away as the months pass?

This disengagement is often easy to spot, once you know what to look for. Your new hire starts taking longer lunches, her ideas and participation in meetings taper off, her productivity and enthusiasm drop, and you see a distinct downward shift in her mood.

Many organizations find it hard to keep new recruits engaged; and the cost of failing to do so is high, in terms of lost performance and increased staff turnover. In this article, we'll look at how you can keep your new recruits engaged, starting from day one.

The High Cost of Disengagement

The Gallup Organization estimates that employee disengagement costs the U.S. economy more than $350 billion a year in lost productivity. In the U.K., disengagement costs organizations an estimated £44 billion each year.

However, these are only the financial costs of disengagement. Disengaged employees lower the morale of the people they interact with. They can be consistently negative, unproductive, and unwilling to help solve problems. They may also be absent more often than their colleagues.

By contrast, when people are truly engaged and are passionate about their work, they can transform their team with their positivity, commitment, and enthusiasm. According to the Kingston Employee Engagement Consortium Project, engaged employees have the following traits:...